Blueblood
A typical evening in Canterlot Castle. Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had just sat down to some marvellous food as prepared by the greatest chefs in all of Equestria, although Celestia just wanted to go and get a sloppy burger from some fast food restaurant, that’s what she has been craving for decades. But no, a Royal Pony couldn’t possibly be seen in a peasant’s eatery now could they?
But anyway, after the disappointingly fantastic food the two sisters were sat in the drawing, lounging about before either of them had to do anything.
Luna was sat on the floor, happily humming an unfamiliar tune while drawing something with crayon. She was improving in her skills with said drawing implement, Celestia even put one of her drawings up on the fridge. Luna knew this was a sarcastic gesture but played along regardless.
Celestia, on the other hoof, was doing something much more her age. She was reading a book, or so Luna thought, in fact the thick tome hid inside a comic book which she had been meaning to read for a while now.
The two of them were happily going about their business when Luna suddenly asked a question.
“Have you seen Blueblood around lately?” she asked without taking her eyes of the page.
“What?” Celestia was taken aback by this question.
“Blueblood, have you seen him around?”
“Err… no. why do you ask?”
“Oh, no reason.”
Celestia looked at her for a little bit. “What a strange mare you are,” she chuckled as she turned her attention back to her com-book. But this had got her thinking. She hadn’t seen her nephew for a while now. He used to visit quite often.
A thought suddenly struck Celestia. A thought that made her look straight back up at Luna, with her face frozen with horror and confusion.
“Celly? Are you alright?” Luna asked with limited concern.
Celestia said nothing, instead she bolted straight from the drawing room and to her study some distance away in the vast Castle.
Celestia made it to her study and locked the door behind her as soon as she got inside.
“This can’t be true,” she muttered over and over again to herself with utter disbelief.
She found a scrap of paper from her desk and preformed a small spell on it. It was a spell that would answer any question or doubt in your mind correctly with either the answer “True” or “False”.
Celestia dropped the paper. It read true. Her thought had been confirmed.
“How c-… Lun-… Blueb-…” Celestia muttered to herself, never forming a complete sentence. “But he’s too ol-.”
Celestia couldn’t concentrate, she needed somepony to talk to, desperately. She would have talked to Luna, but that would have been too awkward. She clicked her hoof at an idea.
“Of course! Twilight!” She looked to a clock. “It’s a bit late now. She’s probably asleep by now. Oh she won’t care!”
Celestia quickly teleported herself to Twilight’s Library.
Celestia materialised in Twilight’s bedroom and, just as she thought, Twilight was asleep.
“I shouldn’t wake her. It’s not right” Celestia turned to leave but stopped in her tracks when she remembered the blatantly obvious. “I'm a Princess! I can do what I want!”
So she turned quickly to face Twilight, and then crept up to her, doing her best to keep quiet. She reached her side in an instant.
Celestia raised a hoof and began to gently prod the sleeping Unicorn.
“Twilight,” she whispered with each poke.
Her jabs were getting ever so slightly firmer and quicker in succession in her efforts to wake the purple mare. Eventually Twilight started to stir, rolling around under her quilt and starting to talk, causing Celestia to take a step back with great confusion.
“Oh YES, Celestia! Just like that! Yes, c’mon! Harder! Faster! Read to me you dirty mare!” Twilight was woken up after her last word. A strange cold sweat over her coat and her heart pounding as she contemplated the weirdest dream she had ever had. Never before had her mind got such a thrill at the idea of her mentor reading a book to her, and now all of her fond childhood memories when Celestia read her to sleep at night when she was scared were all tainted by this single dream.
Twilight sat up in her bed. “That… was so weird.”
“Twilight?” Celestia whispered hesitantly.
Twilight gasped a little before recognising the voice. “C-Celestia? Is that you?” Twilight lit the lanterns in her room with a quick poof of magic, illuminating the tall white figure of Celestia.
“Hi Twilight. How are you doing?” Celestia asked sweetly.
“Err… I'm good. What are you doing here?” Twilight got down to the point quickly.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Twilight’s voice was full of concern.
Celestia hopped onto Twilight’s bed and sat opposite her faithful student. “Prince Blueblood is my nephew.”
Twilight’s face contorted with disappointment as she heard Celestia’s problem. “What?”
“He’s my nephew. How?!” Celestia gesticulated wildly.
Twilight sighed exasperatedly and then put on a very sarcastic tone. “Well Celestia, you have a nephew when your sibling has a…” Twilight stopped her sentence short. Her smug smile was gone and replaced by a look of confusion and horror to rival Celestia’s.
Twilight looked up at the Princess. “No,” she stated in utter disbelief. “That can’t be.”
“I KNOW! But it has to be! Luna is my only sibling, there’s no other way.” Celestia started shaking violently.
“But… she’s been on the moon on her own for a thousand years! There’s no possible way! And Blueblood is far too old!”
“I know, Twilight! I was thinking the exact same thing! But there is no other possible way around it!”
Twilight started clutching at straws. “Do you have any other family that you don’t know of?”
“No!”
“Is he really your child but you just forgot?”
“NO!”
Twilight’s mind started working frantically to come up with a reasonable explanation, but to no avail.
“What do I do Twilight?!” Celestia asked desperately.
“I DON’T KNOW!”
“OH SWEET ME!” Celestia shouted in her Royal Canterlot Voice. “PRINCE BLUEBLOOD IS LUNA’S SON!”
“What should we do about this?” Twilight asked hopefully.
“What can we do?! Nothing! That’s the answer! NOTHING!!!” Celestia shouted into the night.
“We should go talk to Luna about it. Maybe she can enlighten us.”
Celestia contemplated these words of Twilight’s, they made sense. “Alright, we shall go and confront Luna.” With that, Celestia lit her horn and zapped the two of them back to the drawing room in Canterlot Castle.
They fizzed back into existence in front of Luna, who didn’t even look up from her paper.
“Hey Celly-Belly. What’s Twilight doing here at this hour?” Luna asked casually.
“Luna,” Celestia started with a sense of seriousness and authority. “Is Prince Blueblood your son?”
Luna looked up at her sister with a great confusion.
“Yes,” Luna said casually, as if nothing was wrong.
Celestia and Twilight were taken aback by this.
“What?” the two confused Ponies said together.
“He’s my son. C’mon, you know that Celestia.” Luna laughed at her sister and her student as they exchanged nervous glances.
“B-b-but when?!” Celestia asked, all her authority was lost at this point and was replaced by a dumbfounded expression on her face. She fell to the ground to listen to her sister.
“What do you mean when? Before you sent me to the moon!” Luna replied sourly.
“But… he’s like… thirty!”
“No he’s not, he’s over a thousand years old! Remember, he’s part Alicorn so he doesn’t age very fast at all.”
“Who?!” was Celestia’s next question.
“How should I know? It was over a thousand years ago.”
Celestia opened her mouth to talk but no words came to mind. Instead she fell to her side, the confusion to great to allow her muscles to keep her upright. Twilight joined her in this action.
A few moments passed, they were silent. Until Luna burst out laughing.
Celestia looked up from the ground at the now hysterical Alicorn before her.
“Oh you silly Celery!” That was a nickname Celestia had been forcibly given by Luna. “Of course he’s not my son!” she said before her laughter grew stronger.
“Wha-?” Celestia managed t let out.
“I was just playing with you. He’s not my son!”
“Really?” both Celestia and Twilight said in absolute unison with a huge sense of impending relief.
“Yes really!” The purple and white Ponies sighed massively together.
“And Celestia, if you really think about, it makes no sense! Nopony can be part Alicorn, it’s a dominant gene. Also, I think you would have noticed if I had a child before you mooned me!”
Celestia frowned, she felt so stupid. But a question had been raised in her mind which she just had to ask.”So, if he’s not your child, why do I call him a nephew?”
“Beats me. I just thought that was your thing.”
“Oh…” Celestia now felt monumentally stupid.
“Actually,” Twilight started. “This raises a bigger question. If he’s not related to you two, how is he a Prince?”
The two sisters pondered this for a moment. “Good point,” they said together.
It was the next morning, Blueblood had just been woken up by his butler.
He groaned as he was forced to rise from his slumber.
“What is it Hooves?” he asked with an annoyed tone.
“A letter Sir. It bears the Royal Seal,” Hooves spoke in his stiff upper lip voice as he passed the letter to his master.
Blueblood sat up in his large bed and took it in his magic. “The Royal Seal, you say. Well, they must need me for some highly important decision making.”
“Hm, yes. Quite,” Hooves said sarcastically before turning to leave his master’s bedroom.
Blueblood opened the letter. It read:
Dear Blueblood,
You’re no longer a Prince!
Signed,
Celestia & Luna.
Blueblood looked at the letter angrily.
“Mare'd..."